Bnei Akiva Founder Rabbi Avraham Zuckerman Dies

Rabbi Avraham Zuckerman, founder of the Bnei Akiva yeshiva network and a leader in the national-religious movement in Israel, has died.

Zuckerman, whose Bnei Akiva network included some 60 institutions, died Saturday night. He was 98.

A Lithuania native, he moved to prestate Israel in 1936. Zuckerman studied in Poland and Israel under Rabbi Yaakov Kanievsky, who became one of the leaders of the Israeli Orthodox Lithuanian community.

Four years later, Zuckerman co-founded the Kfar Haroeh Yeshiva near Netanya, eventually introducing secular subjects to the institution’s curriculum. He also was the founder of Yeshivat Hakotel in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Among the institutions in the Bnei Akiva yeshiva network are hesder yeshivas, yeshiva high schools, high schools for girls and women’s seminaries.

The rabbi refused to leave Israel to travel abroad and celebrated the day of his aliyah every year, according to Ynet.

Zuckerman is survived by his wife, five children and more than 150 great-grandchildren.